But for the sake of argument, let’s assume human-caused global warming is indeed happening. Conceding this, it turns out that . . .

The effort to curb carbon emissions will be far more harmful than global warming itself!

Please send Congress a letter demanding that they defeat the cap & trade bill and oppose any global climate treaty.

Here’s what I wrote in my letter . . .   

Efforts to curb global warming make as much sense as spending $2 to save $1.

The International Energy Agency believes we must cut carbon emissions in half if we want to stop global warming. They also estimate that this will cost $45 trillion.  http://www.iea.org/press/pressdetail.asp?PRESS_REL_ID=263

Yet Dr. William Nordhaus of Yale calculates that the economic losses from global warming, if we do nothing to curb carbon emissions, will reach just $22 trillion this century. Dr. Nordhaus also estimates that proposals made by The Stern Review and Al Gore to curb carbon emissions would cost $17-25 trillion more than doing nothing:  http://nordhaus.econ.yale.edu/dice_mss_072407_all.pdf

And all of this assumes an effort in which the whole world cooperates, with no cheating!

If Congress imposes cap & trade on the U.S., or ratifies a climate treaty, it will not stop global warming. Instead, it will only damage the U.S. economy and drive more jobs overseas. That’s because  . . .

Many developing countries will not agree to participate!

We would be hypocrites to condemn them for this. They only want what we already have. Most importantly, there are sound environmental reasons why we should want them to gain our level of affluence . . .

Wealthy nations like ours do better at protecting the environment!

* Our water is safer and our air is cleaner.
* We can afford to protect species from extinction.
* We can afford research that constantly discovers how to do more with less, allowing us to grow more and more affluent while imposing fewer burdens on the environment.

Environmental protection will benefit from a wealthier world, not suffer from it.

Developing nations will not sacrifice their progress just to please Western politicians, and we shouldn’t want them to do so. If we really care about the environment, then we need these nations to become richer, not poorer.

The proposed schemes for a cap & trade law and a global climate treaty will . . .

* Fail because of cheating or non-participation
* Cost at least $2 for every $1 we gain, and probably far more
* Impoverish America and the world, thereby destroying the innovation and environmental protections that free market affluence makes possible

Do not spend $2 in a vain attempt to save $1. Do not support a scheme that cannot work. Instead, support the economic progress that makes environmental protection possible. Do this by opposing the cap & trade bill, and any global climate treaty. Let free market innovation and affluence pave the way for solutions that will really work.

END LETTER

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James Wilson
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DownsizeDC.org

SOURCES

Information that inspired links and points above originated with Global Warming 101: Costs by William Yeatman at GlobalWarming.org.

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h
is the official email list of DownsizeDC.org, Inc. & Downsize DC Foundation

Our own James Wilson has analyzed this issue on our blog.

The good news is that President Obama isn’t going to Copenhagen to sign a treaty, but he may sign a proposal that could lead to a treaty at a later date. The Copenhagen proposal is designed to create an international scheme to control carbon emissions (and the entire world economy in the bargain).

President Obama wants to have the “cap and trade” (cap and tax) bill passed before he goes to Copenhagen.

Our goal should be to send him to Denmark empty-handed.

Cap and trade should be defeated because . . .

• It hasn’t worked in Europe
• It probably isn’t the best way to control carbon emissions, assuming you believe that’s important
• The climate models that supposedly justify cap and trade have been consistently wrong

Cap and trade needs 60 votes to come to the floor in the Senate. If we can stop that from happening now then there’s no way that 67 Senators will come together later to ratify a treaty for the same purpose, especially if that treaty cedes American sovereignty to international organizations.

We must defeat cap and trade. We must send Obama to Denmark empty-handed.

Please send Congress a letter opposing cap and trade.

You can use my letter to Congress as a guide . . .

Please pay attention to the climate change models. They have consistently predicted global warming, and been consistently wrong. We’ve had global cooling over the past eleven years, NOT global warming. Mother Earth disagrees with the climate models, and mother always knows best.

If you haven’t kept up with the science please check out this BBC article: http://tinyurl.com/ygwaaqp

Please also pay attention to the fact that cap and trade hasn’t worked in Europe. Meanwhile . . .

Science and industry are creating all sorts of innovations that will be much more effective than your politically designed regulations. These innovations are happening because consumers want green solutions! I’m especially excited by the recent breakthroughs in “cold fusion” as reported on 60 Minutes: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4955212n

Freedom works! We need more freedom and fewer coercive, top-down government dictates.

I want my two Senators to vote against cap and trade, and I want my Representative to vote against it if it comes to another vote in the House.

END OF SAMPLE LETTER TO CONGRESS

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Jim Babka, President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

Check out these recent posts on our blog:

Will Copenhagen Treaty cede U.S. Sovereignty?
President Obama keeps a promise
Congress responds to Constitutional questions
The latest news about the “Read the Bills” idea

D o w n s i z e r – D i s p a t c h
is the official email list of DownsizeDC.org, Inc. & Downsize DC Foundation

Originally published Sunday, October 18, 2009 at http://towneforcongress.com/economy/press-release-congressional-candidate-jake-towne-stimulus-plan-ineffective-in-the-lehigh-valley

BETHLEHEM, PA – US Congressional Candidate Jake Towne related Thursday to a group of Moravian College students that the government’s stimulus plan simply isn’t working in the Lehigh Valley. He also covered the basic economic reasons behind the failure and a better alternative.

While economic planners predict the end of downturn in Q4 2010 and the creation of 3.675 million jobs, Recovery.gov demonstrates that only 0.030 million jobs have been “created/saved” since the plan began in Q1 2009. Only 495.2 jobs are reported as “created/saved” in all of Pennsylvania. including zero Lehigh Valley jobs and $0 spent. Out of the $2.05 billion allotted to Pennsylvania, only 0.15% has been allotted to the Lehigh Valley, or $3.2 million.

To date, Recovery.gov reports zero Lehigh Valley jobs “created/saved” and $0 spent. The allotted funds for the $3.2 million are:

• $154,817 allotted to Advanced Environmental Solutions for soil and groundwater contamination testing

• $1,129,049 to the City of Allentown for Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing

• $737,917 allotted to the City of Allentown for Community Development Block Grant

• $687,480 to the City of Bethlehem for Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing

• $449,326 to the City of Bethlehem for Community Development Block Grant. Funds allocated to provide lighting on 4th Street and a 12-foot pedestrian and bicycle path on a former railroad line.

Another way to look at the statistics is that the total cost of the stimulus plan – at $1.1 trillion divided by the American population comes to spending roughly $3,500 dollars per person. The amount allocated in the Lehigh Valley to-date comes to less than $5 per person.

Towne also related that there may be political reasons for not spending the money in the area, such as the time necessary to form the new bureaucracies to control the funds, the usual inefficiency and red tape, concentration of funds near Washington, and also to influence the future re-election cycle of the President and his party. However, he stressed that the problems of excessive spending will simply NOT be cured by more spending.

Raised in Nazareth, Jake Towne is running an independent private citizen against Mayor John Callahan of Bethlehem and the multiple-term incumbent, Representative Charles Dent of Allentown. His novel yet simple idea for a system of open, accountable, transparent government called ‘Our Open Office’ can be found at TowneForCongress.com, as well as the text of the lecture. Towne is extremely concerned about the integrity and future of the dollar, the absence of the Constitution’s rule by law in society, the loss of civil liberties, and reckless warfare and welfare state spending. Details can be found on his website as to his solutions.

Towne for Congress is endorsed by Retake Congress and 9/12 Candidates, and Towne will appear on the FOX show ‘Freedom Watch’ with Judge Napolitano later this month. The campaign, in cooperation with five other liberty candidates running for United States Congress, issued its first online ad campaign last week and is listed at www.ThisNovember5th.com for a fundraising event that is billed as the largest single day multi-candidate fundraising event in history. Towne will be a keynote speaker at the Constitution rEVOLution Tea Party in Philadelphia on November 22 which is being held simultaneously at major cities nationwide.

Contact: Campaign Manager Jessica Roth

Email: TowneForCongress@gmail.com

Website: TowneForCongress.com

Moravian Lecture:  http://towneforcongress.com/economy/lecture-why-the-stimulus-plan-will-fail-and-a-better-alternative-1

Our Open Office: http://towneforcongress.com/mission/our-open-office

_______________________________________________________________________

Jake Towne is running for U.S. Congress in Pennsylvania’s 15th District in the 2010 election as a citizen unaffiliated with any political parties. Jake also writes at www.LibertyMaven.com and www.CampaignForLiberty.com. A novel campaign website where you can comment on articles and start discussions is available at TowneForCongress.com.  [Reach the Author Here!]

_______________________________________________________________________

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

As always, unlike the NFL, the author grants full permission to allow any accounts of, rebroadcasts, retransmissions, repostings of this article to your blog or anywhere else in order to promote the Restoration of our Republic.

Veritas numquam perit. Veritas odit moras. Veritas vincit. Truth never perishes. Truth hates delay. Truth conquers.

Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito. Do not give in to evil but proceed ever more boldly against it.

by Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution

Originally published Friday, September 4, 2009 at http://towneforcongress.com/economy/nais-an-open-letter-to-congressman-dent-from-jake-towne

Dear Congressman Dent,

I attended your last town hall in Emmaus this week. Unfortunately, there were so many questions that I was unable to ask mine. In some ways, this is understandable as I have clearly communicated to you my concerns, but you can still look forward to seeing me in plenty of future town halls, attending as a private citizen. After all, I will be taking over your job after the 2010 election, and they are great chances for me to hear people’s thoughts.  Thanks for holding them.

The subject of this letter is your vote in support HR 2749, the so-called “Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009″ which recently passed the House. My query to you is to please explain why you would support such a preposterous piece of legislation. You see, our district has quite a few rural farmers, and several of them have contacted me in outrage over HR 2749. As a result I learned more and more about this subject, decided their concerns are warranted, and hence my letter to you. Let me explain my key issues with HR 2749 – that is, besides my keen interest to find out how you could possibly deem this bill constitutional and within the range of the powers delegated to you by We the People.

Section 743 of this bill levies a new $500 tax on all food production “facilities.”  Farms is never clearly defined and in Section 5 it claims that some are excluded, while some are included.  This separate FDA document on page 6 defines farms as “facilities that manufacture/process, pack, or hold food, provided that all food used in those activities is grown, raised, or consumed on that farm or another farm under the same ownership” which is consistent with 21 CFR 1.227(3) of the legal code, and the intent of HR 2749.  In fact, what is the true intent of this bill?  Is it meant to slowly encroach upon family farms, or the many “victory-over-the-FED” home gardens sprouting up all over the nation?

Surely you did not intend to eventually levy taxes on our home gardens in the Lehigh Valley, correct? Although I completely oppose this new tax, why did you approve it?  Why did you not take action to clarifying the terms prior to approving it?

In the name of “food safety” all food-producing sites are required to submit plenty of bureaucratic paperwork and are issued tag numbers, not unlike Social Security numbers. I am not kidding about the bureaucratic paper-shuffling you have approved in this bill. For an idea of the paperwork, I refer to Section 418 which mandates food producers to:

(1) conduct a hazard analysis (or more than one if appropriate);

(2) identify and implement effective preventive controls;

(3) monitor preventive controls;

(4) institute corrective actions when–

(A) monitoring shows that preventive controls have not been properly implemented; or

(B) monitoring and verification show that such controls were ineffective;

(5) conduct verification activities;

(6) maintain records of monitoring, corrective action, and verification; and

(7) reanalyze for hazards.

Next is a chief concern of small farmers, the highly controversial National Animal Identification System (NAIS). In 2006, this plan was revealed as forcing the farmer to tag each individual animal, at a cost of anywhere from $3 to $20 per head. The NAIS applied to anyone with a single horse, pig, chicken, or goat in the backyard – no exceptions. Now, HR 2749 is not explicit with the costs, and has some exceptions listed, but if you had read Section 107 which states it “shall by regulation establish a tracing system for food that is located in the United States or is for import into the United States” and “establish and maintain a system for tracing the food that is interoperable with the systems established and maintained by other such persons; and use a unique identifier for each facility owned or operated by such person for such purpose.”

The text of this bill is extremely vague about exactly what this “tracing system” is, but without an actual definition, it certainly appears to be similar to NAIS.  Since some facilities are excluded from this Act (for now) what is the intention of Section 107 for the future?  To slowly establish this system everywhere in the USA?

Sections 105 and 106 of this bill delegate power to the FDA to regularly inspect and audit all facilities and require documents to have “immediate availability.” I remind you that the 4^th Amendment of the United States Constitution protects our natural right to be safe from the government’s inspection of our belongings without a warrant and probable cause. This act presumes all food-growers to be guilty until proven innocent. Now, if states and localities decide to do this of their own accord, with the permission of the people, this is one thing. However, certainly you must agree that the federal government has no right to legislate on this matter per the “Powers of Congress” in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution of the United States?

Section 135 states that civil penalties of up to $7,500,000 may be assessed for violations of the very lengthly and detailed Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, but nowhere does it state how exactly such fines will be calculated. This reminds me of a quote from a very brave woman who once wrote:

“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well,when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.”

Of course, as Pennsylvanians, perhaps I should close with a quote from Benjamin Frankin:

“They who would trade liberty for security soon have none and deserve neither.“

What would I do?  Very simple.  I would have voted against this bill, and encouraged consumers to group themselves and demand this of the producers themselves if desired, instead of using the federal government to unconstitutionally force into existence some very unnecessary bureaucracy.  If it passes the Senate and is signed by the President, I would attempt to revoke the act as unconstitutional.

Many producers already organize their food production themselves; there is no need to use force here.  Citizens should realize that acts like HR 2749 only serve to create government-sponsored  corporate monopolies of our food supply. Large “Big Ag” farms can handle the costs of bureaucracy, which serves as a barrier to both prospective and current small, innovative businesses.

Somehow America has survived for 233 years without this rather silly legislation.  Please note that I am not saying that poisoning of the food supply is a non-issue and should be scoffed at, but there is no evidence that the paperwork required and fines threatened by this act would in fact increase food security.

Not to pick on any State, but if you insist on acting beyond your constitutional powers, why not roll this out just in Rhode Island (to limit the damage and outrage) and try it out first?  If the idea is so great and wonderful, why wouldn’t Pennsylvania want to implement it on the State level?  Congressman Dent, the U.S. Congress was never meant as a device to overpower the individual States, which is why I recommend once more you take a close, hard look at Article I, Section 8 for the remainder of your term in office.

Please pardon my tone as I continue to be outraged by your actions and those of Congress as a whole. This is the formal open letter I have publicly written to you without a response. I have taken the care to personally hand-deliver all of them into your hands.

Let me wish you, for the one and only time, luck in the upcoming election. You are going to need it.

Your fellow citizen,

Jake Towne

P.S. -  Again, if you have the time only to reply to one issue, PLEASE reply to me concerning your stance on monetary policy and the Federal Reserve. I remain highly concerned that by your approval of the Banker Bailout of 2008 and your inaction during the past five (5) years in Congress to make any effort to salvage the integrity of the nation’s currency, the dollar, you have played a role in the eventual and likely demise of our monetary system.

I have yet to receive any reply to the Open Letter addressed to you on August 9, 2009, where I pointed out that health care legislation you support will have the same end effect as the current Democratic plan.

I have yet to receive any reply to the Open Letter addressed to you on July 21st, 2009, asking why you voted to give away $50 Billion in foreign aid, including $2 billion in military aid to Israel.  I believe almost everyone in our district would agree with me that spending our tax dollars domestically would be better than frittering away them on economic and military aid abroad.

I have yet to receive any reply to the Open Letter addressed to you on July 7^th, 2009, in regards to your thoughts on sponsoring a bill that would require Congress to read the bills before voting to pass them.

I have yet to receive any reply to the Open Letter addressed to you on June 26th, 2009, in regards to your thoughts on sponsoring a bill that would require Congress to only pass bills that address just ‘One Subject at a Time.’

On June 4^th, I sent you a note concerning the constitutionality of using of taxpayer funds on the nation’s health care and asked a simple question in regards to HR 2516, the Medical Rights Act, a bill you co-signed. Could you please reply to this question?

On May 7^th, I sent you a note requesting your thoughts on the Federal Reserve (specifically whether you would support abolishing it, and if not, why) and our nation’s monetary policy. As requested above, could you please reply and inform me of your stance on the FED and monetary policy?

_______________________________________________________________________

Jake Towne is running for U.S. Congress in Pennsylvania’s 15th District in the 2010 election as a citizen unaffiliated with any political parties.  Jake also writes at www.LibertyMaven.com and www.CampaignForLiberty.com.  A master campaign presentation for internet viewing is available.  A novel campaign website built by Raging Debate, TowneForCongress.com has recently opened. [Reach the Author Here!]

Jake was recently endorsed by 912Candidates.org.

_______________________________________________________________________

Summary of Articles and Bibliography for Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution (8/7/2009)

After having given away billions faster than even the optimists had anticipated, it was announced today that the federal government’s “Cash for Clunkers” program is coming to an early end. But, based on the standards of economic analysis which prevail in Washington, Wall Street and academia, the program must be considered a master stroke of public policy. These experts will tell you that by mandating that citizens destroy older (but still working) vehicles to receive $4,500 toward the purchase of a new car, the program not only revved up the economy by encouraging Americans to borrow more, but it may have, perhaps, made some great strides in saving the planet by reducing carbon emissions.

With this solid win-win now on the books, the time has come to put the strategy to work in other areas. For instance, the government could use these lessons learned to help the moribund housing sector. I propose the “Dough for Dumps” stimulus program. Here’s how it would work:

Homeowners struggling to make payments on environmentally inefficient homes can apply for government aid to destroy their old homes and receive guaranteed loans to buy newly constructed houses, provided they are furnished with the latest “green” advancements in energy systems and building materials. As with the “Cash for Clunkers” program, this plan would solve many problems at once.

First, it will help put a floor under falling home prices by reducing the glut of houses currently on the market. The best way to stop prices from falling, and thereby reduce the foreclosure wave, is to reduce supply.

Left alone, the market would do this by lowering prices, which would bring more buyers into the market. But this approach falls on the back of homeowners whose only crime was to overpay for a house. A more socially equitable method would be for all taxpayers to shoulder the burden through a government bulldozing program.

In addition to contracting the supply of homes, the program would also stimulate the economy by providing funds to hire environmentally savvy builders and contractors (not to mention the workers needed to demolish the old homes). The resulting demand would help to reduce unemployment, especially in the housing sector. Government incentives and subsidies could also give an important boost to the developers and manufacturers of “green” windows, solar heating systems, furnaces and water systems.

Once this program has rejuvenated the real estate market, citizens should also be encouraged to burn their old furniture and clothing, thereby sparking demand for new goods from our nation’s struggling retailers. When you think about it, the possibilities are endless.

If these proposals seem ridiculous, it is because they are. But they are no less ridiculous than the “Cash for Clunkers” program that inspired them. All are examples of the “broken window” fallacy of economics, which argues that economic activity can be stimulated by the need to replace something that has been destroyed.

Unfortunately, many of our “best” economists subscribe to the notion. But society gains nothing from redundant activities. Digging holes just to fill them up does employ workers, but the work offers no benefit to anyone not receiving the wage. Absent government incentives, such a job would create no profit and could only exist as a result of a subsidy from someone else. Such work also prevents workers from accomplishing tasks that create real wealth and actually benefit society.

In the case of “Cash for Clunkers,” the government provided an incentive for citizens to destroy otherwise working assets, fully owned by their users, in exchange for a smattering of “green” tech and a lot more debt. Could anyone look at our country now and determine that our problems stem from a lack of new cars? Given our level of economic output, it is likely that we already have too many cars. On the other hand, it should be obvious to anyone that American consumers are already burdened by too much debt. The program distorts the market by giving car owners a powerful incentive to take out new loans for cars they may not need.

The environmental benefits of the program are much more difficult to quantify and extremely unlikely to overcome the waste inherent in the wanton destruction of working assets. On a practical level, the premature shelving of working cars will add extra pressures to our waste management capacity, and create emissions and pollution through the compaction/incineration processes that accompanies disposal. On an abstract level, this program punishes every consumer who sought to be ahead of the curve in environmental responsibility by using their own resources to upgrade a clunker. Some may think twice before making such a move without government money on the table.

More fundamentally however is the question of making wise decisions in a recession. Given the fragility of our finances, we should use our resources wisely, pay down our debt, replenish our depleted savings, and make investments in time and energy that offer a tangible benefit. The “Cash for Clunkers” program is the exact opposite of what we need and a glaring example of the lack of economic understanding currently on tap in Washington.

For a more in depth analysis of our financial problems and the inherent dangers they pose for the U.S. economy and U.S. dollar, read my just released book “The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets.” Click here to order your copy now.

For a look back at how I predicted our current problems, read my 2007 bestseller “Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse.” Click here to order a copy today.

More importantly, don’t wait for reality to set in. Protect your wealth and preserve your purchasing power before it’s too late. Discover the best way to buy gold at www.goldyoucanfold.com. Download Euro Pacific’s free Special Report, “Peter Schiff’s Five Favorite Investment Choices for the Next Five Years“, at http://www.europac.net/reports.asp. Subscribe to our free, on-line investment newsletter, “The Global Investor” at http://www.europac.net/newsletter/newsletter.asp. Watch the latest episode of my new video blog, The Schiff Report, at http://www.europac.net/videoblog.asp.

Sonia Sotomayor becomes the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice. She was confirmed and it wasn’t even close, as expected. Souter is out and Sotomayor is in. It seems like a wash to me. The next Supreme Court appointee will be the more interesting one.

The Cash For Clunkers program gets added funds. The Senate approved 2 billion more dollars we don’t have to destroy cars that get poor gas mileage and subsidize the purchase of cars that get better gas mileage. For those that don’t “feel” like understanding economics, John Stossel demonstrates why this program is yet another wasteful boondoggle. Did you know that you can buy a brand new Hummer with your neighbor’s money?

An amendment to the additional money for the Cash for Clunkers program by Senator Coburn would have permitted dealers to donate the traded clunkers to charities and the poor. I say would have because the amendment was defeated by the Democrats. I was under the impression the Democrats cared about the poor? It appears they care about appeasing the environmental lobbyists more.

In response to the massive opposition to Obama’s health care plan the White House has taken another page out of Woodrow Wilson’s playbook. In a modernized version of Wilson’s American Protective League the White House would like you to report “fishy” media content that disagrees with Obama’s health care plan. Feel free to report this article. The email address is flag@whitehouse.gov.

Here is the White House Health Care propaganda page. Am I being unfair labeling it as propaganda? Well here is Obama in 2003 arguing with himself.

Hmmm, that second video link seems “fishy”. Perhaps it should be reported. Obama’s America is becoming more scary by the day.

In happier news liberty candidates are readying themselves to lead the GOP to the promised land. Rand Paul officially announced his candidacy this week and has a money bomb planned for August 20th. Peter Schiff is gearing up and having what should be a big money bomb tomorrow: The Schiffathon.

There are some less well-known liberty candidates running in races across the country. A wonderful and hopeful new video presents them to the world:

All of these candidates deserve our support. It would be extremely nice to see a liberty candidate round table on Glenn Beck’s TV show with all of these candidates discussing the issues. Hint Hint Mr. Beck on Twitter: @glennbeck.

Here are the liberty candidates’ web sites again for doing your own research:

• Rand Paul – http://randpaul2010.com/
• Jake Towne – http://towneforcongress.com/
• R.J. Harris – http://rjharris2010.com/
• Adam Kokesh – http://kokeshforcongress.com/
• Jaynee Germond – http://germond2010.com/
• Mike Vasovski – http://www.vasovskiforcongress.com/
• Paul Lambert – http://votelambert.org/
• Peter Schiff – http://schiffforsenate.com/

And here are this week’s random thoughts, tweets, and quotes:

• U.S. health care is like a free market in the same way that Madonna is “like a virgin”. http://cli.gs/uSSS1

• They mixed up the names. Obamacare should be renamed Cash For Clunkers.

• ObamaCare doesn’t solve health care. It solves Social Security insolvency: a death penalty for the old.

• Calling your lawmaker today may keep the government doctor away!

• I live in the real world, not some conspiracy. Not a birther, nor a truther, just a guy looking to be free.

• I prefer liberty with danger to peace with slavery. – Unknown

• I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. – James Madison

• Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed – else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die. – Dwight D. Eisenhower

• We are free, truly free, when we don’t need to rent our arms to anybody in order to be able to lift a piece of bread to our mouths. – Ricardo Flores Magon

And the quote of the week:

Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves. – D.H. Lawrence

Have a great weekend and don’t forget to donate to Peter Schiff today and make the Schiffathon a success.

Make no mistake that is what Barack Obama wants to do. Whether he actually can accomplish it is another story. For more details on the new case and its history see this excellent article from Reason. Let’s all hope that the Supreme Court takes the case and does the right thing.

Ron Paul is one of the leading advocates of interpreting the 2nd Amendment as written. No surprise there, but does he actually put his money where his mouth is? Of course he does. Here are three gun-related bills he introduced a few weeks ago in the House:

H.R.3022 : To restore the second amendment rights of all Americans. This bill repeals various gun control laws already on the books, including background checks and child safety locks.

H.R.3021 : To repeal the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 and amendments to that Act.

H.R.3023 : To provide for the safety of United States aviation and the suppression of terrorism. This bill would allow employees of airlines to carry guns in order to protect themselves and their passengers.

I especially like that last one. September 11th may have turned out differently had the pilots been armed. They say that 9/11 changed everything. Well, if pilots were armed it may have changed nothing. No justification for the Iraq war. No justification for the Patriot Act. No justification for warrantless wiretaps. And so on.

Gun control is certainly important but in the age of Obama there seems to be 3 major efforts that liberty lovers need to do everything in our power to stop. All of them directly affect our economy in bad ways. Together they are a recipe for economic armageddon.

1. Cap and Trade: This bill needs to fail in the Senate after already passing in the House. We all know why it’s a bad idea. In fact even some of those who voted for it in the House know it’s a bad idea but voted for it anyway. I wish Ron Paul would name names.
2. Government Health Care: Obama says the government is going to “compete” with the private sector. The market will react by forcing people toward using government health care until all the competitors are gone. Obamacare is really just a migration plan toward complete socialized medicine. How much is it going to cost to provide health care for 130 million more Americans and where will the money come from?
3. Stimulus, Part 2: There’s a renewed effort under way to push for another stimulus program. We haven’t even spent more than 10% of our previous stimulus money and we already want another one? Obama used fear tactics to push his first one through. It had to be done right then, yet months later we’ve only spent 10% of the money. The only effective shovel ready Obama project is the one that is shoveling bullshit from the White House directly into our ears.

Fighting this evil recipe for economic armageddon should be first on your liberty to-do list.

And on that “up” note here are this week’s random thoughts, tweets, and quotes:

• Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what the f**k happened. – @rebelyid on Twitter

• In the U.S. every day should be Independence Day. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty!

• I wonder how many would show up if we had a memorial/funeral for the Constitution. Not “celebrity” enough I guess.

• Screw Al Qaeda, there are at least three other Al’s that need to be stopped, Al Franken, Al Sharpton, and Al Gore.

• If people automatically think that strict adherence to the Constitution is “crazy” then Ron Paul will never be considered sane.

• G8 all agree to attempt to control the weather. Mother Nature laughs.

• I cringe at the word “regulation” more than any other imaginable swear word.

And finally, my favorite, passionate Frederic Bastiat quote:

Away with the whims of governmental administrators, their socialized projects, their centralization, their tariffs, their government schools, their state religions, their free credit, their bank monopolies, their regulations, their restrictions, their equalization by taxation, and their pious moralizations!

and with that… Have a wonderful weekend!

Helen Thomas and Chip Reid berated White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs the other day for pre-selecting questions for Obama’s “town hall” and “controlling” the press. It appears that the honeymoon (I call it the “Obamagasm”) is coming to an end. Gibbs seems to be out of his league as Obama’s Press Secretary. I’ll be surprised if he makes it through Obama’s first and hopefully only term.

There is one particular forbidden health care question for Obama. I would love to hear his answer to the following question:

“Mr. President, you are considered a Constitutional scholar. Could you educate the American people a bit and tell them what section, article, or amendment permits the federal government to provide health care?”

Sure, he would dodge the question, but it is one dodge that I long to hear.

On Monday, Ron Paul’s son Rand Paul held another money bomb campaign fund raiser. The goal was to break $100k. The goal was met. This is huge news and a great sign that the Ron Paul wing of the Republican Party is not going anywhere. Rand Paul raised over $100,000 in about a month without an official fund raiser. Senator Rand Paul has a nice ring to it.

There was high drama last Friday afternoon on the House floor during the debate on the narrowly passed Cap and Trade bill. The Republicans kept pointing out that the legislation will lose more jobs and put a higher tax burden on the American people.

Prior to the Cap and Trade debate members of the Congressional Black Caucus requested a moment of silence for Michael Jackson, who died the day before (as we all know). The request was granted. Later, during the Cap and Trade debate Tom Price (R-GA) requested a moment of silence for all of the people who will lose their jobs due to the bill. The Democrats objected. No moment of silence was held. This was a genius move by Price to demonstrate that the Democrats seem to care more about a dead pop star than thousands of American jobs. Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, most of the news outlets didn’t make the connection.

In more local personal news I purchased my first handgun for my birthday (yesterday). I took an NRA class a few months ago in preparation for owning a firearm. It feels damn good to rack the slide on that 2nd Amendment. Now I join millions of other gun owners searching for scarce ammo at reasonable prices.

I don’t believe we’ll see any fundamental action from Obama on gun control for awhile (if ever). The path he must travel toward gun control is littered with political land mines, some of them placed there by his own party. Then again so is immigration reform and he is starting to kick up the dust on that again.

And now a few random thoughts and quotes for the week:

• When it comes to paying attention to the unraveling of America, ignorance is not bliss, it is willful neglect.

• If I turn on the news tomorrow and hear anything about Michael Jackson I’m going to moonwalk off a cliff!

• Will it take 99 more Al Frankens winning for Americans to wake up and realize their govmt is a joke?

• Our task of creating a socialist America can only succeed when those who would resist us have been totally disarmed. – Sarah Brady

• “A woman who demands further gun control legislation is like a chicken who roots for Colonel Sanders.” – Larry Elder

• “I ask you sir, who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people.” – George Mason

• One of my favorite gun rights bumper stickers: Guns only have two enemies: rust and politicians.

• White House to offer new breakfast cereal: Obamaganda. Ad slogan: “Obamagasms for Obamaganda: A free carbon credit in every box!”

• Senate version of Cap and Trade will probably have a provision forcing everyone to hold their breath for 60 min/day.

Have a great Independence Day weekend!

May the number of fingers on your hand today equal the number of fingers on your hand on Sunday!

What he reveals will make anyone who is opposed to this bill seethe with anger, but it seems it is just typical of DC lawmakers.

Paul also points out a bit of the hypocrisy on both sides of the aisle. It’s almost like Ron Paul is the whistle blower for reality on Capitol Hill.

Watch the clip below.

Paul specifically discusses why he doesn’t think the way to get HR1207 to a House vote is through a discharge petition. He suggests continuing to drum up grassroots support for HR1207 is the best method.

Grams allowed Ron Paul to speak until he was done on each topic. He even pointed out that his niece convinced him that Paul was a great candidate during the 2008 election.

Listen to the interview in it’s entirety below.

Download audio file (ronpaul-jasonlewis-06292009.mp3)

by Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution

Originally published Sunday, June 28, 2009 at http://www.nolanchart.com/article6573.html

Last week the House voted 219-212 to pass HR 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, whose intent is to “create clean energy jobs, achieve energy independence, reduce global warming pollution and transition to a clean energy economy.”  I’ve only had time to browse the 1,092 page bill and sincerely believe it will not achieve a single one of its purposes.

The creation of clean energy jobs is very vague and the parts that are clear center not on industry but on educating people about global warming – this appears to signal the creation of a new class of bureaucrat-teachers, not industrial jobs.

Energy independence?  Transition to a clean energy economy?  Get real, there is nothing of substance in the document that details such a plan, and this is a pipe dream for government to create this.  What will you ask?  Only a free market, driven by the consumer and free from government interventions can do so, in my opinion.

“Reduce global warming pollution?”  Somehow I missed the scientific debate where the global warmers square off against the global coolers and those who believe that ‘the weather just changes, weather you want it to or not’ as I suggested here “Anthropogenic Global Warming or an Ice Age, Which Is It? (PART 2/2)“.  Is carbon dioxide really a pollutant? Don’t plants need it to live and don’t we all respire it? It would be a lot cheaper and a lot more useful than HR 2454!

My own private analysis of HR 2454 can be summarized up with:

• Inefficient energy sources will instead be propped up and buffered from free market competition by the government.
• The taxed companies will pass down the taxes to We the People, and energy costs will rise for us, the consumers.
• The State will subsidize and hence sponsor, mandated education that “global warming” is fact, stifling debate.
• Wall Street will have a great time doing all the carbon credits trading using derivatives with “underlying assets” that are literally in many cases, just hot air.

Or, in three words, as “Crap ‘N Trade”

On the last point above, let’s ask the question, “Cui bono?” Who benefits?

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GOVERNMENT SACHS – THE BUBBLE BLOWERS

Goldman Sachs recently announced that RECORD bonuses will be generated in 2009. The $10 billion dollars in bailout money will be returned, although undisclosed amounts lent to GS by the Federal Reserve via the discount window and other off-balance sheet transactions will not be discovered until the FED is audited by Ron Paul’s bills HR 1207 and S 604. How can this be?

Goldman Sachs are our country’s premier inside traders – former Secretary of Treasury Hank Paulson and his appointed lieutenant Neel Kashgari are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of GS alumni in government. They are aware of, and even exercise control over, the next steps our government will take.

This means in upturns as well as downturns, it is possible to profit. Some say it’s even easier to profit during downturns, as Catherine Austin-Fitts discusses in the latter half of this June 26 interview with Max Keiser.

In a recent Rolling Stones piece entitled “The Great American Bubble Machine,” Max Tiabbi does us all a great service by – sarcastically but realistically – detailing the history and prior bubbles of this firm. Tiabbi’s next prediction for a bubble (mine, for the record, is still the U.S. Treasury and gold markets, where GS plays a vital role as well) is that of carbon credit trading. He details how GS has promoted this legislation and how they will profit from this market – which, bottom line, is a government-created tax market where the carbon credits issued to energy producers increase in scarcity year after year.  (Photo courtesy Steve Ford Elliot  License)

Who will deliver these ‘mandated profits’ to Goldman Sachs? That’s our job as the energy consumers!

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A “First-Class Democracy”??

In a seething conclusion, Tiabbi finishes with:

“It’s not always easy to accept the reality of what we now routinely allow these people to get away with; there’s a kind of collective denial that kicks in when a country goes through what America has gone through lately, when a people lose as much prestige and status as we have in the past few years. You can’t really register the fact that you’re no longer a citizen of a first-class democracy, that you’re no longer above getting robbed in broad daylight, because like an amputee, you can still sort of feel things that are no longer there.

“But this is it. This is the world we live in now. And in this world, some of us have to play by the rules, while others get a note from the principal excusing them from having to do homework until the end of time, plus 10 billion free dollars in a paper bag to buy lunch. It’s a gangster state, running on gangster economics, and even prices can’t be trusted anymore; there are hidden taxes in everything you pay. And maybe we can’t stop it, but we should at least know where it’s all going.“

Here is where, in my opinion, Tiabbi grasps part of the truth, but makes a fatal mistake, the same made by many Americans. Let me attempt to correct it briefly.

Tiabbi relates that most Americans think we live in a “first-class democracy,” and fervently believe this is beneficial. It’s not.  Democracy is a Greek word from demos (the majority) and -cracy (rule), or literally “rule by majority.”  Search the both the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution for the term and you will not find it. Our founders – to a man – recognized the dire dangers of democratic rule. This is why they created for us a nation of laws protecting the natural rights of the individual – a constitutional republic, a union of nation-states, consisting of checks and balances, with both democratic and special-rule elections or appointments, and both democratic and special-rule voting practices. This is why they said:

“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.”

- Thomas Jefferson, drafter of the Declaration of Independence and 3rd President of the United States

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”

- John Adams, 2nd President of the United States

“A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will produce an eruption and carry desolation in their way… Liberty has never lasted long in a democracy, nor has it ever ended in anything better than despotism… Democracy pollutes the morals of the people before it swallows up their freedoms.”

- Fisher Ames, U.S. Congressman 1789-1797

A choice between a “gangster state” or a nation of laws should be an easy one for most to make.  For the Republic!

Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution

Jake Towne is running for U.S. Congress in Pennsylvania’s 15th District in the 2010 election as a citizen unaffiliated with any political parties.  Jake also writes at www.LibertyMaven.com and www.CampaignForLiberty.com.  A master campaign presentation for internet viewing is available. [Reach the Author Here!]

P.S. You can listen to my most recent interview with “Patriot Pastor” Kinley from last week on BlogTalk Radio here.   On July 1, 4 PM EST, I will be on live with Ken Van Doren of the Voice of Liberty on www.RevolutionBroadcasting.com.

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Summary of Articles and Bibliography for Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution (6/8/2009)